Millionaire Former New York Times Typist Pool Manager Bill Keller Calls On Olds To ‘Sacrifice’

Oh GOOD, Bill Keller, a millionaire who used to manage the typists at the New York Times, is here to fix the deficit for us by summarizing a report by the Third Way that itself is based on Congressional Budget Office statistics taken completely out of context. But it’s ok, because the Third Way is a “centrist” organization. (“Centrism,” as we all know, refers not to ideas that are actually in the political center, but rather to ideas that are mostly held by rich white men who talk on the teevee or type in columns about GOP ideas but CALL them centrist, thus confusing “centrism” with ideas that they themselves like and have.) So Bill Keller, centrist, is here to save entitlements by making sure that people entitled to them don’t actually get what they’re entitled to.

In 1962, we were laying down the foundations of prosperity. About 32 cents of every federal dollar, excluding interest payments, was spent on investments, only 14 percent on entitlements. In the mid-70s the lines crossed. [According to a recent report by the Third Way] we spend less than 15 cents on investment and 46 cents on entitlements. And it gets worse. By 2030, when the last of us boomers have surged onto the Social Security rolls, entitlements will consume 61 cents of every federal dollar, starving our already neglected investment and leaving us, in the words of the study, with “a less-skilled work force, lower rates of job creation, and an infrastructure unfit for a 21st-century economy.” […]

BY THE WAY, we took a look at the CBO report upon which this Third Way report is supposedly based, and they seem to have selectively culled statistics and taken a lot of stuff out context, which is totally not shocking at all.

The Republican plan espoused by Mitt Romney and his fiscal lodestar Paul Ryan would cut the cost of entitlements largely by moving toward privatization: personal investment accounts for Social Security, vouchers for Medicare. And it’s not at all clear the Republicans would assign any of the savings to investing in our future.

At least the Republicans have a plan. The Democrats generally recoil from the subject of entitlements. Centrists like those at Third Way and the bipartisan authors of the Simpson-Bowles report endorse a menu of incremental cuts and reforms that would bring down costs without hitting the needy or snatching away the security blanket from those nearing retirement. They include gradually raising the retirement age to compensate for the fact that we now live, on average, 14 years longer than when F.D.R. signed Social Security into law. They include obliging those of us who can really afford it to pay a larger share. They also include technical fixes like aligning the automatic cost-of-living formula with reality. To curtail the raging inflation of health costs, the government could better use its market clout to hasten electronic record-keeping, replace the fee-for-service model, reform medical malpractice laws and promote living wills. (A quarter of health care spending comes in the last year of life.) But you won’t hear much of that on the campaign trail.

Oh you know, except for the People’s Budget, the Budget For All, the Schakowsky Deficit Reduction Plan–except for those, it’s ABSOLUTELY true that “liberals” and “progressives” and Democrats don’t have a plan. And also, let your Wonkette note that his claim that the arithmetic will not work via “liberal” solutions is not exactly true, given that other people have said that the arithmetic will work. But as Your Wonkette has noted, the GOP (and we guess “centrists too now) sometimes have problems with math. It’s ok, we can blame public schools, who have decided that math is probably too hard.)

The traditional liberal alternatives — raise taxes on the well-to-do, cut military spending — are not nearly enough by themselves. The arithmetic simply doesn’t work, unless we face the fact that entitlements are a bargain we can’t afford to keep, not in full…At least the Republicans have a plan. The Democrats generally recoil from the subject of entitlements…. We should make a sensible reform of entitlements our generation’s cause. We should stiffen the spines of our politicians, and push lobby groups like A.A.R.P. to climb out of the bunker and lead. (And, by the way, we should resist the boomer temptation to take every cent of the reform from the pockets of our kids.) We should keep the heat on Congress and the president to double down on the cost-saving provisions in Obamacare.

Did you know that raising taxes on the wealthy was a “liberal” value? We did not, seeing as taxes for the wealthy were higher under St. Reagan than they are now. And this thing about retiring 14 years or however many years later is great for typists like Your Wonkette and Bill Keller, but for construction workers and waitresses, possibly not so much! Same with people of color, who will never get to retire if the age is raised beyond their life expectancies, which as of 1990 was the same as the life expectancy of men in Bangladesh (seriously). But this is why we type for Wonkette and not the New York Times, it is because we are screeching liberals and not “centrists.”

About the author

Kris E. Benson writes about politics for Wonkette and is pursuing a doctorate in philosophy. This will come in handy for when they finally open that philosophy factory in the next town over.
@Kris_E_Benson

"At least the Republicans have a plan."
And the plan is to just say NO. Actually, I love the political ads from the GOP, reminding us that Obama hasn't fixed the economy and the unemployment rate is still high, as if they had nothing to do with that, along with the Democrats.

Katydid

It drives me nuts that the Repubs have refused to help fix the economy or create jerbs to make Obama look bad so he'll lose the election…and then they plan to do what they should have been doing all along god forbid the Twit gets elected. Scumbags.

PuckStopsHere

As long as I know Rafalca is taken care of, I can die in peace.

http://simplyleftbehind.blogspot.com/ actor212

RAFLAC! ought to be glad the Olympics aren't in Paris, or he'd be outsourced to some farmer's dinner plate…placing fifth, MY GOD, what a loser!

Come here a minute

And soon.

http://simplyleftbehind.blogspot.com/ actor212

Errr, Social Security and Medicare "entitlements" are not Federal dollars. They are OUR dollars that the government put away FOR US to earn interest as a safety net.

That's my motherfucking money, not yours, Keller.

prommie

By funding the general revenue with our dollars, ever since Reagan, and using the money to offset tax breaks to the rich, guess what, for 40 years now the GOP has been robbing the poor of their retirement savings to give to the rich!

I swear, when will the fucking goobers of this country wake up, and rise up, and put those fucking guns they love so much to a good use? With votes, of course.

http://www.wonkette.com ChillBill

David Brooks and Bill Keller need to be "sacrificed."

WhatTheHeck

Unfortunately, the smell from that sacrifice will not be pleasant to the nostrils of god.

Angry_Marmot

He does have that smug, Aztec priest smile going for him, doesn't he?

HempDogbane

MaoBama is here and Obama is here and Third Way is here and Republicans are

You beat me to it by a minute and a half. Yes, this centrist dystopia is dangerously close.

http://dismalpseudoscientist.wordpress.com Fraudulently_Joe

Well, part of the point is that it isn't centrist; it's right-wing policy objectives that are cleaned up and presented as "radically centrist" or "outside the political spectrum entirely". When in fact, it's neither, just as 80 years ago.

gullywompr

You betcha.

horsedreamer_1

Ken Keltner?

ChernobylSoup

…leaving us, in the words of the study, with “a less-skilled work force, lower rates of job creation, and an infrastructure unfit for a 21st-century economy.”

Jeebus, he has moved to the center of the right wing. These folks have no shame anymore in telling the poor, elderly, sick and infirm to suck it, we are keeping every dime and you guys can fuck off.

Mittens Howell, III

"At least the Republicans have a plan."

wukka-wukka

SorosBot

And of course, the Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney plan still keeps Social Security for the old people, but tells the young and us not-yet-olds to go fuck ourselves. Here's a better idea; how about we take away Social Security and Medicare for the Baby Boomers, but then reinstate it for the later generations? After all, they're the ones who have fucked everything up.

Beowoof

George Carlin once described the baby boomer attitude as: "it's mine give me that". The more we go on the more I believe he defined my generation perfectly.

SorosBot

Pretty much; that along with their hatred of young people, and anger if you ever dare insult their generation.

anniegetyerfun

I'm technically Gen Y, and I also hate young people. Oh, and old people. And babies.

Beowoof

Shit, I am in that generation and find them embarrassing. As a group we tend to be self centered spoiled brats, who believe they are more entitled then everyone else.

prommie

Fuck you, smartass! See, thats a joke, son.

ChernobylSoup

Okay, here's another thing: Baby boomers need to quit saying they're "middle aged." Unless you can prove with science that you're gonna live to 120, shut up. It's one more thing you've taken away from Gen X: our god given right to have a mid-life crisis at 40. How can we buy a motorcycle and run off with that hot chick we met in rehab if you keep moving "middle aged" out of our reach?

Youareright

It's middle of adult life CS they're not counting childhood. 20-40 young, 40-60 middle aged, 60 plus GETTIN UP THERE. Most boomers contrary to popular belief were born after 1955 to people too young to go to WWII and most of us graduated college into some of the crappiest economic times outside the 30s and right now, when a lot of us are suffering again and some of us aren't 50 yet.
I don't get the whole Gen X resentment, could you explain it to me sometime? Gen Xers largely came of age in pretty decent economy of the later 80s and the 90s (except the short Bush elder recession which also screwed boomers) and the Berlin Wall and Soviet Union were falling … why the pissed-off attitude? Do you think someone ate all the cookies before you got to the kitchen? Cause they were gone for most boomers too until the tech boom … thank you baby boom (Jobs, Gates, Sun Microsystems, Berners Lee et al) for that. The postwar industrial paradigm wasn't gonna last forever and we need the kids to start a new one right about now.

emmelemm

I'm on board.

Generation[redacted]

They'll be better off buying private health insurance with a small voucher, and the responsible ones have already saved $150 million in an IRA anyway.

The guy who built the Panama canal and thus came up with an awesome palindrome?

A man, a plan, a canal: Panama

anniegetyerfun

Stan?

PubOption

Stalin had a new one, every five years.

http://dismalpseudoscientist.wordpress.com Fraudulently_Joe

George Catlett Marshall?

Granted, it was a significantly better plan…

horsedreamer_1

Schlieffen?

DahBoner

Rusty Camper Van?

edgydrifter

Of course the "centrist" analysis pits federal research spending against entitlements, because to even mention the exponential growth of military spending since 1962 is radical Marxist thoughtcrime.

RadioBowels

Yes, Ryan's coupons will tuck nicely into Romneycare.

http://www.indiegogo.com/revive-vlad Doktor Zoom

Jesus, these people!

SorosBot

Oh, and the Democrats do have a plan; it's called Social Security and Medicare. If it ain't broke, then don't fix it, moron.

ThundercatHo

What was the tax rate for the wealthiest in 1962?

RadioBowels

That, my friend, says it all.

Chichikovovich

The greatest comments are always simple and deadly.

ThundercatHo

Thanks, Chich.
*buffs nails on tie-dye tank top.

Antispandex

So, because we "live longer now" we should keep grandpa in the coal mine until he is 75 instead of 65? Wow, what will the retirement age for C.E.O.s be? maybe 85 or 90? Because, you know, not all of that coal dust and everything.

anniegetyerfun

Yes, I love the idea that because we live longer, we are naturally given, say, 10 more years of robust, work-ready health. As opposed to, say, 2 more years of robust, work-ready health followed by another 12 years of slow decline.

DahBoner

70-90% of all degenerative diseases can be avoided.

What you eat determines if you get cancer, heart disease, diabetes or even dementia….

Antispandex

So, yes, keep gramps in the coal mine, but feed him better?

DahBoner

Or maybe like Japan, keep immigrants out and put healthy old people back to work?

Mittens Howell, III

Centrism, it's like right wing extremism couched in a gentle, condescending tone.

WhatTheHeck

Take these “centrists” spin them in a centrifuge and what you have left after all the words get spun off, is concentrated crap.

Antispandex

"Centrism; don't toe the conservative line because you agree, toe the conservative line because it is pointless, and mean spirited, to argue".
Or…
"A centrist is someone who is reasonable enough to sees our point of view. An extremist is someone who thinks it is possible that we could be wrong".

Callyson

The traditional liberal alternatives — raise taxes on the well-to-do, cut military spending — are not nearly enough by themselves

Has this fucker *seen* the military budget lately?

DahBoner

Military=Socialism That Cannot Be Questioned *

*= Does not conform to GAAP

ChernobylSoup

A big part of this drivel is typical generational bullshit that hasn't changed since Turgenev penned Fathers and Sons. Except a large portion of the Baby Boom generation has taken an exceedingly selfish stance. Their "I've got mine, no means testing, no taxes" attitude is terribly damaging to this country.

Sometimes I think that after the moon landing, the entire generation said "fuck it… can't never beat that, might as well coast from here."

Goonemeritus

Luckily we baby boomers have been plowing the equivalent of 14% of our salary into FICA for decades so at least we have that going for us.

Baconzgood

"we now live, on average, 14 years longer" I love when they say that shit. They forget that a 7 year old that dies from polio doesn't join the work force. That is whay it's called "AVERAGE LIFE SPAN". It takes in account EVERYONE regardless of age.

Goonemeritus

Since life begins a conception now we need to input all those aborted fetus into the equation. If the religious right is to be believed that should bring the average life span down to twelve and we can all retire after high school

Chichikovovich

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. If Keller had taken five seconds to ask a demographer – any demographer, even a Heritage foundation hack – he would have learned that a huge chunk of that increase in lifespan came as a result of a massive reduction in infant mortality.

SorosBot

And he also forgets that while someone who types columns tut-tutting the poor for suffering enough to solve the imaginary deficit crisis can likely keep working fine into their late 70s, and beyond, it's a bit different for say construction workers, coal miners, bus drivers or wait staff.

http://dismalpseudoscientist.wordpress.com Fraudulently_Joe

Not to mention that, related somewhat to this is the fact that life expectancy gains show a substantial income effect, and while "we now live, on average, 14 years longer", the life expectancy of the lowest quintile (read: those most dependant on entitlements for survival in later years) has risen by just under one single year.

EatsBabyDingos

When I see "a third way," I always think there is sex with a man, there is sex with a woman, then there is a third way, and Orley Taitz nude WHAM. Shrivelly for a month.

Angry_Marmot

Well, that changes my plans for the afternoon.

elviouslyqueer

At least the Republicans have a plan.

Really? Well, let's see it then, because right now it's harder to spot than motherfucking Waldo.

Goonemeritus

No it’s not, defeat Obama and then change the subject.

qwerty42

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
so millionaire Bill Keller feels everyone but him and his friends needs to suffer for the sins of the GWB administration? Sounds like the pundit's fallacy. (Thanks to Larrison and MY for pointing this type of error out).

CrunchyKnee

You know, I'll gladly not retire until I'm in my late 70s if it means that some old fuck baby boomers can still get their Viagra on the cheap to plow the olds in the retirement village.

prommie

Hey, fuck you, whippersnapper, I paid into that shit, blame the GOP since Reagan for STEALING THE MONEY and using it to reduce taxes on the rich, capisce? Blame the robbers, not the victims.

SorosBot

But the Baby Boomers are the reason why we had the Reagan and Bush presidencies, and those old fucks are the ones now saying the rest of us shouldn't get the same benefits they will.

prommie

This old fucker never said any such shit. Who's this "them" people you are talking about? Its not polite to refer to me in the third person when I am right here, you know.

prommie

Is that the idiotic broad stroke line going around? Its the boomers fault for Reagan, so fuck them? Thats some sophisticated historical analysis there, man, really good stuff, I suppose I should just go kill myself now.

bobbert

You know, I am one of the oldest boomers (born in 1947) and I am not yet on Medicare. As it happens, I have voted straight Democratic for my entire life, and I oppose privatization of Social Security or Medicare. There are lots of other boomers who share these views. Unfortunately, there are also lots of boomers who don't — because there are, simply, lots of boomers.

BTW, Paul Ryan is 42.

Youareright

Wrong the baby boomers are Not why we had Reagan and Bush. They were the least likely age group to vote for Reagan (some of them were not even voting age). Reagan was popular among the over-35s of the day who were not boomers. Boomers also did not vote for Bush in any percentage different from other age groups. Check out polling data before you say what people did.
Boomers don't vote as a bloc. They are all different like everybody else.

http://www.wonkette.com ChillBill

Avatar awesomeness, dude.

Estproph

Well, clearly we can't have both a high standard of living and sound infrastructure for the country at the same time as complete, utter control of all wealth by the super-rich, so something has to go…

spends2much

So, is there a conspiracy going on at the NYT to actually dissuade people from paying for online subscriptions? Between this and Brooks, it's like they're making a concerted effort to repel people.
And it worked, Bill! Spends2much is not spending any more money on your birdcage liner!

Joey_Blau

they had Bill Kristol on editorial! that's when I quit. then they hired Asshat.

BlueStateLibel

OT, but Harry Reid's now saying a Bain investor told him that Mitt Rmoney didn't pay taxes for 10 years, thus his refusal to release his tax returns. http://tinyurl.com/c3uv6vx

Chichikovovich

I'd be careful with this sort of "information" if I were Reid. Say there are some embarrassing things in those tax returns. A great way to nullify it is to get people speculating about something that would be hugely embarrassing but is in fact false. Then when the speculation reaches a fever pitch, release the tax returns. Huge hullaballoo that the speculation is false – nobody notices in the din that some really damaging true things are in there too.
And when people do finally notice, the response is "Oh really. Tell us again. And while you're at it, tell us again about those ten years of no taxes!! HAWHAWHAW."

After the way those guys disappeared the issue of Bush's unexplained absences from the Air National Guard, I've learned to respect their evil powers.

bobbert

But Romney has pretty adamantly stated that he isn't going to release any more tax info. So, I'd think that stirring a little shit is appropriate. If Romney sticks to his guns and stays dummied up, at least it extracts a little payment in the form of increased suspicion. And, if he does cave in and release more returns, I think we can be fairly sure that at a minimum they will show that he routinely pays relatively small taxes on enormous income.

I see this as just a jab, trying to draw a response. The smartest thing Romney's team could do would be to ignore it (and if they do, I expect Reid to let it drop).

BaldarTFlagass

I hated having to read that Third Way book back in junior high. Fuck you, Alvin Toffler. Suck my future schlock.

Chichikovovich

Funny how futurists always seem to look worse in the future.

TootsStansbury

These fucking idiots. It's this shit that makes me want to remove my paltry savings and 401k money out of circulation and either go away or underground. Fuck it. There won't be a USA In the future just a dystopian shell of what was once great.

Sorry for the pearl clutching oh and buttsecks.

Edited to say oops this sounds a little like going galt doesn't it.

prommie

Its not galty as long as its a commune, dude, wanna join my commune?

http://www.wonkette.com ManchuCandidate

I dunno, Bill Keller. You keep talking about the 60s. How about go back to the tax rates of the 1960s?

Are we sure that the Centrists at The Third Way isn't some kind of cult that Bill Keller has joined?

http://www.wonkette.com ManchuCandidate

Nah, it's called living with privilege on Manhattan while his head is stuck up his ass.

prommie

Centrism? Wasn't that actually invented by Bill "The Triangulator" Clinton and the since-repentent AlGore? Wasn't that when the democratic party just cold abandoned its core purpose of striving for economic justice for the working people and the poor, and became a 3-ring circus of interest-group identity politics? That caved to the banksters anyway? Who was preznit when Glass-Steagall was repealed? Who signed Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the Worst Law Ever In History?

MissNancyPriss

WHY AM I SITTING IN MY CUBICLE RIGHT NOW, WORKING FOR THOSE ENTITLEMENTS THAT WILL BE COMING OUT OF FRIDAY'S PAYCHECK?

Joey_Blau

" the fact that we now live, on average, 14 years longer than when F.D.R. signed Social Security into law." which of course includes babies that die in their first year.. and all those people killed in industrial accidents (which does not happen now because we have no industry).. gah!

you let them off on this one. It is not the average life expectancy, which has increased due to medicine (and also the lack of deaths in childbirth is cramping non-divorce methods of replacing your wife), but rather.. life expectancy at RETIREMENT!

which, a) has not gone up that much, and b) was predicted and included in the design by the actuaries. who, it turns out, actually knew stuff.

so these centrists are going to save us by slashing our benefits now so they won't maybe get slashed in the future? what's not to like?

prommie

The centrists are worse than the GOP. Fuck them Hard. Clinton, fuck him, Kankles McSwampsow, his wife, fuck her.

bobbert

The centrists are worse than the GOP.

We're gonna have to disagree about that one, prommie. Although it may just come down to definition, e.g., calling Bill Keller a "centrist" is like calling a Teabagger an "independent".

(Keller is the son of former chairman and chief executive of the Chevron Corporation, George M. Keller.)

An_Outhouse

The Kama Sutra illustrates many 'ways'.

The Third Way is where you bend over and have your ass raped.

For freedumz.

ChernobylSoup

With apologies to any baby boomers present – this country won't be great again until the boomer generation is dead and gone. My "forgotten" generation (X) might not accomplish much (too few of us), but I have faith in Gen Y.

TootsStansbury

Thank you thank you thank you

prommie

Hmm, interesting theory, do you have any proposal for some kind of solution, perhaps a final solution, to this problem of the boomers?

I mean, you know, just tell me which train to get on, ok?

ChernobylSoup

Now I'm feeling bad about my boomer rants. I'm not suggesting anything drastic. Maybe we could just take away their voting rights or something.

prommie

man, its not generational, its the rise of the religious right, the backlash from the south against civil rights, the disaster that was gun control for the Dems, and its the dems own fault for abandoning broad economic justice in favor of the patchwork quilt of eminently mockable interest group political issues. Its a whole concatenation of circumstances, you can't blame my very diverse generation, we were also the civil rights and anti-war marchers, you know (not me personally, but). It was three boomers buried in that dam in Mississippi.

ChernobylSoup

You're absolutely right, and I shouldn't demonize an entire generation.

Youareright

and it was boomers who died at Kent State and spent their youth as foot soldiers to change a world of discrimination and pollution and typists instead of PCs, and if you want to time-travel back to the sixties and seventies I guarantee you'll come running back to today, even if you're unemployed … the boomers are leaving a society better than the one they found, and the anger is about things they had no more to do with than young Wall Street dudes or old guys like Greenspan and Cheney. And I'm not even old enough to claim personal credit for any of it.

DahBoner

I saw a 20 year old, short hair, in a pickup truck, in VERMONT a couple of years ago with a TAKE AMERICA BACK bumper sticker?!?

Just because you're young, doesn't make you smart…

KotBR

You won't hear anything on the campaign trail about living wills? I wonder if Sarah 'Death Panels' Palin can explain why that might be?

PubOption

I think it is possible to set up a terminal care directive that means "Keep doing everything you can, until my money is used up".

widestanceromance

Havers always have such great ideas for non-havers. That's why they are our betters.

Also, shut up BK and look up the word, 'torture' in the dictionary. You can google the spelling to make it easier to look up.

Baconzgood

That trip went really well….For the POTUS.

prommie

Hey, look at this hairy shit, this is a wild quote, this is red meat, this coulda been posted here on the Wonkette by old Flying Chain Saw, my mentor who taught me to rage maniacally:

"We feel comfortable in the Senate," he said. "Where the problem is, is this: Because of the Citizens United decision, Karl Rove and the Republicans are looking forward to a breakfast the day after the election. They are going to assemble 17 angry old white men for breakfast, some of them will slobber in their food, some will have scrambled eggs, some will have oatmeal, their teeth are gone. But these 17 angry old white men will say, 'Hey, we just bought America. Wasn't so bad. We still have a whole lot of money left.'"

Guess who said all that shit in the quotes. He's a somebody, and it ain't Biden, we know he'll say anything. I was impressed, I tells ya!

If they raise the retirement age, my workplace will be filled drooling , doddering, oldz who shouldn't even be driving.

prommie

My workplace already is filled with this.

12X34X

Attack Bill Keller. Senior citizens are just trying to survive – like you. There ought to be enough room for all of us in the workplace.

http://sciencekick.blogspot.com valthemus

"… this thing about retiring 14 years or however many years later is great for typists like Your Wonkette and Bill Keller, but for construction workers and waitresses, possibly not so much!"

Worrying about construction workers and waitresses as if they were actual people! You libruls really are the limit!

PubOption

What about the nail ladies?

SpeedoFart

The Third Way = League of Shadows?

Hmmmm…

rickmaci

"Keller is the son of former chairman and chief executive of the Chevron Corporation, George M. Keller."

Tells you everything you need to know about how Senor Keller views the rest of us, eh? Twitt Romoney meet Bill Killjoy. One percenters of a feather.

PubOption

And when it comes to seeing the other options, or hearing both sides of an argument, Helen Keller would have been a better bet.

chascates

In 5 years I'm elgible for about $900 a month in social security (higher then due to COLAs I hope). I've never made more than $28,000 in my life. I've been basically unemployed for almost 6 years, having worked for cash in food service and now on a farm.
HOW ABOUT SOMEONE ELSE SACRIFICING FOR A FUCKING WHILE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?

Biel_ze_Bubba

Half-way between rational and Republican is still pretty fucking nuts, even if you label it "Centrist".

Same with people of color, who will never get to retire if the age is raised beyond their life expectancies

Btw, this is an argument the Bushies gave when pushing SS privatization, probably based on a flawed Heritage Foundation study (analyzed by CBPP here). I don't know enough to say it's not a valid point, but the fact that it's a GOP talking point makes me skeptical.

SpiderCrab

I've always hated Bill Keller. It's one of the few principles I still honor.

barto

I thought centrist stood for "Can't Envision Needing To Really Investigate Such Things", but maybe I'm thinking of something else.

Ducksworthy

I would like to point out that the "we live 14 years longer" is a load of semi-actuarial crap.Life expectancy is calculated from birth. So if you reduce infant mortality, as we have done, less than Cuba, but still substantial, you add 60 some years to the average life expectancy, Life expectancy at age 65 has changed some since the 1930's, but not 14 years. Maybe 6.

horsedreamer_1

Kevin Drum had this earlier. Life expectancy for men who reached 65 during the FDR years was 77. So, 12 years of SS retirement eligibility. Today, men who reach 65 live on average 17 years — a gain of five years. Meanwhile, the retirement age is raised to 68. We are only averaging two more years of SS retirement issue to a man than we were in 1945.

Bite down on that noise, Bill Keller, as you are everything we hate.

I call now for a Punditry Death Dirge!

Ducksworthy

Thank you. One solution, that might be preferred by conservatives, would be to dramatically increase the infant mortality rate.

horsedreamer_1

Anything to keep Cheney around.

http://hong-kong-actresses.blogspot.com/ Chow Yun Flat

Plan A: Raise the age for partial Social Security benefits from 62 to 64. Raise the age to qualify for full benefits from 67 to 68. Use a formula for cost of living adjustments that will result in lower yearly COLA increases. Put caps on Medicare payments so that sick old people will die more quickly, cutting Medicare and Social Security payments.

Plan B: Cut the defense budget.

http://yakkingmelmoth.blogspot.com/ Porter Melmoth

That's a touching formal portrait of the man. Brings out the George W. Bush/Tom Brokaw in him. So gentle, so reasonable.

Remember how consummately American he was when he waxed indignant over the Wikileaks material that he found objectionable when that un-American traitor Julian Assange revealed his true colors?

Medal of Freedom material, hands down.

Left_Leftie

"To curtail the raging inflation of health costs, the government could better use its market clout to hasten electronic record-keeping, replace the fee-for-service model, reform medical malpractice laws and promote living wills. (A quarter of health care spending comes in the last year of life.) But you won’t hear much of that on the campaign trail."

You hear that every fricking day on the campaign trail because what he just listed were key pillars in the Affordable Care Act AKA Obamacare. I believe I just figured out what the Repuubs mean by "Repeal and Replace." Repeal Obamacare and replace it with the same thing and call it Republican fluffy good medical stuff.

DahBoner

Did they think of raising The Cap? No?

Strange, that these Republicans NEVER think of something so simple, easy, that will take the SS fund well into the 2030's, no problem, long after the Baby Boomers are gone…

ttommyunger

I don't mind soulless sell-outs speaking out; I just don't know why anyone feels the need to pay any attention to them….I know I don't.

12X34X

How does A lead directly to C? If we continue what the haters love to call "entitlements" (and what the rest of us call a return for the whopping 47% we pay in taxes), then how will that result in a "less skilled work force?" Won't some of those returns go towards education?
And the reason we have low rates of job creation now is that fat, white CEO parasites can make a bigger profit with essentially free slave labor overseas. That's the reason.